It's hard not to be excited about the Boston Celtics two games into the preseason. It's not like they have dominated through and through, but they're winning games in the fashion in which many thought they would. Among their biggest standouts have been Baylor Scheierman and Hugo Gonzalez.
The two of them taking leaps this season should work wonders for Boston, as it could make up the difference after they traded Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia this summer. For as impressive as they are, they have not been putting up empty numbers for the Celtics.
Stat Defender revealed that Gonzalez and Scheierman ranked No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, in individual offensive rating (among players who have played two preseason games and played 20 minutes a game or more).
Gonzalez has an offensive rating of 145.2, while Scheierman has an offensive rating of 130.9. The only one between them is OKC rookie Aday Mara, at 132.7.
It's not like this comes completely out of nowhere. Gonzalez and Scheierman did their part in keeping Boston afloat before Jayson Tatum returned. That's why it makes sense, to some degree, that they believe those two can do their part in filling the void left by Brown.
It's not like the Celtics will count on them the same way they counted on Brown, but those kinds of numbers coming out of two players likely to be featured heavily in their second unit will make Boston all the tougher to stop.
There's really no way this could go wrong
You know what's kind of nice about Boston? The fact that even as the regular season is about to start next season, we still don't really know what their starting lineup is going to be. We have an idea of who the majority of the lineup will be, but because the team is as deep as it is, we actually don't know who else will round out the starting five.
Gonzalez and Scheierman have been impressive enough that no one would really be upset, no matter where Boston places them in their rotation, whether that's in the starting lineup or with the reserves. Both of them contribute in their own way to the team.
Both are high-IQ players who possess different skill sets, with Scheierman as the better playmaker while Gonzalez is the smoother athlete, but both can defend and process the game at a high level. They are not as talented as Brown (fun fact: he showed up at No. 10 on that aforementioned list at 124.1), but stats like these fuel the narrative that Boston will be just fine without him.
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